“How was Citizen Management?” Gia asks. I’ve missed most of the conversation, but Collins doesn’t appear too happy to have been cut off.
“Deadly,” Sean answers.
“Waulers had taken over our state,” Marc adds. “They had run many people from their homes and taken up the vacancies.”
“At first it was hard to tell everyone apart,” Sean cuts in. “And a lot of innocent people might have died.”
“Where were you?” Collins asks, stuffing her soup-soaked bread into her mouth.
Marc answers, “Maine. I don’t think it will be lasting much longer.”
Fein mentioned earlier how her state, Oregon, was diminished too. Acre by acre, they’re already taking our land from us. We’ve just been too blind to see it until now. “Why do you say that?” I ask Marc, finally looking at him.
He meets my eyes but says nothing. He only stares. Seconds pass before he lets go of my hand, gets up, and leaves.
As usual, I stare at him walking away, hearing Sean ask, “What did you do, Ky?”
I shrug, turning back around. What didn’t I do?
Cory sits next to me, and the air that was once fresh is now full of smut. “You should not sit here,” I tell him.
“Let me talk to you, Ky.” His face is healed, and this bothers me. I wish he could have worn those bruises longer. He’s done well staying out of my sight since our last altercation. Why he’s popping up now, I don’t care enough to ask.
“She’s not talking to you. Leave.” Luke stands up quickly, fuming.
Cory stands. “Just for a minute, Kylie.”
I rise to my feet. “Stay away from me, Cory. I mean it,” I threaten in a low voice. I don’t want to do this in front of everyone, but I will.
He grabs my arm, and I yank back from him before my free hand balls to a fist and jabs him in his nose. His head whips back once and then again from another quick blow I didn’t intend to execute. Sean grabs me. I’ve grown familiar with the feel of his arms because they’re like his brother’s. They’re both quite muscular and strong, a clear indication of their years in boxing rings and weight training.
Luke moves in front of me, punching Cory again. He hits the floor.
Hanley races over and helps her brother up. “What is your problem, Luke?”
“Don’t question him,” I tell her. “Question your brother.”
Cory shakes himself out and jabs a point at me. “You are tripping, Ky! What you think is wrong. It wasn’t like that at all.”
Sean’s still holding me back, keeping my arms pinned behind me. “I don’t care, Cory. I’m only going to warn you once. The next time you speak to me, upon your approach, I will draw blood. Give me fifty feet at all times!”
“I saved you, Kylie,” he loudly defends as I’m turning around.
Twisting back around, I shout, “Saved me? If it wasn’t for you,” I express with the harsh point of my finger, “I wouldn’t have needed saving.”
“What did he save you from?” Sean asks near my ear.
“I can’t say.” I grab Luke’s arm. “Let’s go before the snake strikes us.” This isn’t the time or the place, and while I hate Cory, his circumstances aren’t the onlookers’ business. Plus, if they knew what I know, I’d be just as guilty.
We leave the rec hall, and I remember Seits requested I stop by. “I’ll catch up to you two later. Going to check in with Seits.”
“I’m coming with you,” Luke informs, giving a nod to Sean as he jogs toward our home.
Sean calls, “Include me in later tonight.” Likely wanting to know the details about the fuss with Cory.
Luke and I head for Jord’s office. Shaking his head, Luke states, “You’re not meeting with Seits alone anymore. Not after she turned you into one of those walking dead. I still think they are in this together.”
“I know.”
“Madam?” I call when we walk into the general’s office.
“I called for Kylie, Luke,” Seits says, looking at Luke with annoyance.
Luke crosses his arms and stands with his chest pushed out. “I’m standing in to ensure my twin doesn’t get turned into the walking dead.” He’s slowly losing his respect, and that’s a bad sign.
“It wasn’t my order, Luke. The Trade required Kylie be tested to confirm she was not an implant. My assurance was not enough. The turning was the last of her tests to see if the outsiders would try to save her. She was out there for hours before she was found.”
“You wanted to speak with me?” I change the subject. Luke will go on and on, expressing his disapproval about the way I was treated, and I appreciate he has my back.
“To thank you and apologize.” Seits wants to apologize…? Weeks have passed, and now she wants to apologize. She has spoken with me several times since then. She’s sitting forward on the chair, hands clasped, resting on the desk. The corners of her mouth are slightly turned upward in a smug smile, giving off the slightest hint of security. But I don’t believe it. To hell with her apology!
“I’m fine. Is there anything else?”
“The labs are about finished. A group of you will check on them after they have built the bridges for crossing over the hole.”
“I understand. If there isn’t anything else, we’ll dismiss ourselves,” I say.
“You two can leave.”
We leave the office for our house. Luke whispers, “Later tonight, I’ll tell you how we’re going to go to war against the outsiders.”
“Cool,” I sing with a nod. “I want to hear all about it.”
When we make it to our home, I rush through a shower and get dressed. On my way back to my room, Marc’s door calls to me. I put my clothes away and go to it, opening the door without knocking.
He’s not here.
I pace the floor until my legs get tired, then sit on his bed and wait for him. Soon, I’m lying down, thinking about what I’m going to say. It’s been a while since we’ve seen each other, and it seems silly to apologize for past events. But maybe that’s what I’m supposed to do. Maybe I should even say I miss him or show I miss him. Unless he doesn’t miss me…
This is a weird feeling.
Anticipation. This is what I must be feeling; an emotional state of anxiety awaiting a private reunion with Marc.
I stuff his pillow beneath my head and pull the blanket up to my shoulders, getting comfortable as I wait on his return. With my back to the door, I hear it open.
“No, Collins, not tonight,” Marc says, following her request to be welcomed in his room. I remain quiet, likely unnoticed.
“Why not?” she flirts. There’s a bit of shuffling.
“I’m not with that.”
“Not with me, but you are with Ky. I saw the way you looked at her earlier.”
“What I do with Ky is my business. Not yours.” I gently turn over to see where they are while trying not to make the bed sound. When I rest on my right side, facing the door, the bed makes a slight creak.
Oops.
Collins asks, “Can I become your business?” as Marc looks over his shoulder.
He stands in the doorway with the door half closed. I can’t see her because he’s blocking her from his room. But the light from the hall cuts in, slicing over the bottom half of the bed, though I stay in the darkness.
He looks back at me and back quickly at Collins. “Goodnight Collins. I’ll see you in the AM.”
“Hugs?”
“No,” he says, but not harshly. He probably would hug her if I wasn’t here.
“Okay, Marc. Night,” she says sweetly, and he closes the door.
I watch him walk to his rack and hang his vest and take off his guns and boots. “I’m going to get in the shower. Will you be in here when I return?”
“Yes.”
He grabs some clothes from his top drawer. “I’ll be back.”
He doesn’t take long showering, and when he throws his towel on his rack, I ask, “Collins, huh?”
“Collins
and I are none of your business, Ky.”
Hearing that makes me nauseous. I wait before I get up from his bed and walk to him leaning against his dresser. “I am sorry, Marc.” I pondered it enough and decided this would be the best start.
“Sorry for what?” he asks, uncovering me with his shadowed purple eyes.
I swallow hard. “For making you feel you mean less to me than you do. For…” I carry on, “…making you feel like I’m leading you on. For making it seem like I’m juggling you and Cory. And for not being honest with you,” I admit in a voice softer than I’ve ever spoken. The jitters attack my stomach and make my voice and hands shake.
He looks me over, leaning his weight on his elbows, which are propped up against the dresser. “You’re weak for me, Kylie?” he asks.
“I’m not proud of it. But yes.”
Marc rakes his hand through his hair and leaves it cuffed around the back of his neck. He gazes at me for a second. “You didn’t do what I asked you to do.”
“Dreaming about you takes away my nightmares,” I admit, looking away from him to the floor.
He turns my head to face him. “I don’t have an interest in Collins.”
I hold back my smile. “And me?”
“I don’t hate you, but I don’t like you either.”
I grumble, rolling my eyes as I turn away from him. “Your rejection is worse than being turned into a Zombie and craving flesh.”
His eyebrows furrow. “How would you know that?”
“Word got through to the Trade that I was an implant, and they required me to go through some tests. One of those tests was to have me turned into a Zombie to see if the outsiders would help me by removing the infection.”
“And they helped you?”
Lowering my voice, I say, “Cory helped me by calling them. He claimed he healed me by using a cure.” I lift my brows high and grin, anticipating his bewildered response.
But Marc doesn’t allow the shock to show on his face, though he gasps and says, “Cory’s an implant?”
“As well as Floyd, Fein, and, we suspect, Jord and Seits.”
He leans from the dresser and rubs his hand over his beard. “Are you sure, Ky?”
“No.”
He shrugs and holds his shoulders near his ears as he asks, “Why would they suspect you of being an implant?”
“Something Cory said.”
Crossing his arms, he leans back against the dresser. “So he knows.”
“No,” I hurry to say. “He knows nothing. I was proven to not be one. He said he never meant to lead them to me. He didn’t mean for them to misinterpret him being around me as him telling them I was an implant.”
“Wow.” He leans over, and as he rises, he shoves his long hair from his face. He needs a haircut too, but I like its shaggy waves and how untamed it is.
I step closer to him, grabbing him by his sides. “Can we talk about that later?”
Marc tucks my hair behind my ears and holds me gently by my neck. “I think I should still be mad at you.”
“Once someone says sorry, they are to be forgiven. It’s law.” I crack a small smile, but furrow my brows to forgo my seriousness.
“I forgive you, but that doesn’t mean I have to accept you.” I step back and he tugs me back to him. “But I do. So please don’t kiss him.”
“Kiss you?”
“Nope. You’re leaving me alone. It’s law,” he seductively drawls with a smile that melts my spine.
“Stop it, Marc. Kiss me already.”
He follows suit, mending what I’ve broken. I halt our kiss to hug him.
“You’re about to leave?” he asks.
“You won’t let me sleep in here anymore.” I move away from him to his door.
“I haven’t seen you in a while. Tonight, I might make an exception.”
Happy, I try not to let it show. “Don’t let Collins take my spot. I’m going to talk to Luke about something.”
“You don’t have to worry about that.”
Leaving Marc’s room, I run into Collins, who is dumbstruck by my exit. “Is there a problem?” I ask her, crossing my arms in front of my chest.
She glares at me. “You know what, Ky―”
I wave my hand dismissively. “Let me tell you something. The both of them, Marc,” I throw my thumb toward his door behind me, “and Luke are mine.” I point to my chest. “Back off.”
Her evil glower remains intact as she says, “We’ll see, Ky.”
“Challenge me, and we will.”
Luke comes up the stairs, catching our exchange. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing. Collins was just walking away from this door.” She is trying to get under my skin, and it’s working.
Collins looks between me and Luke before she pushes past us, heading for the stairs. Her bedroom is downstairs, and there is no reason she should even be up here.
“You want to finish our talk? Or were you about to go in there?” Luke points to Marc’s door.
“I was coming to find you. I ran into her preparing to go in there.” I look at the door for a second too long, considering what could’ve happened if I hadn’t been here.
“Why?”
I shrug. “I’m tired of Collins. Maybe she’s growing bored. Creations need to stay busy, and they aren’t using us for much, so relationships are the next best thing I suppose.” We walk into Luke’s room and push the door closed. “What were you able to find out?”
“We won’t be able to accomplish this on our own, but I figure if we explain to a few Creations we are going in for destruction, they’ll be willing to help.”
I squint my eyes. “What are you talking about, Luke?”
“You have two marbles, one to get there and another to get back.” He walks to his window and looks out before he says, “We will go there unannounced. Shoot up a few, no, a lot of them with the Creation Zombie bullets and come back the same night.” A light takes his eyes as he talks downright crazy.
“How would we separate the good from the bad?”
His eyes narrow as he says, “They are all bad, Ky. How can you believe any of them are good?”
“I see where you are going with this. But take a minute and think about it.” Crossing the floor to him, I gesture with my hands as I urgently say, “We are going to jump through a pit of colored particles with no idea where we’d arrive, and just shoot up some place in hopes the Zombie bullets work? Have you completely thought this through?”
“Yes,” he states simply, quickly nodding his head.
I throw my hand in my face, disappointed. “Luke, please tell me you have put more thought into this.”
“Ky, what do you suggest we do? Wait for them to come here through their pits of particles and shoot us up?”
I plop down on his bed. “If they come here, we are better prepared, and we have more that will fight with us.”
“We hope. What’s saying these Creations here aren’t working with them? I hate to say it, but I agree with Cory about General Jord holding on to that list for a reason, and it is by no mistake there are implants in his division. Even if our effects are minimal, our rebellion will show them we aren’t toys and we’re not going to stand by while they threaten our planet.”
Luke is going crazy. He wants to ambush the Vojin’s base. That’s a one-way trip, and he knows it. “Hold on, Luke, let’s take a step back here. Why did you suggest using the Creation Zombie bullets?”
“We saw them work on killing a Vojin.”
Now he has my undivided attention. “What? When? How? Why didn’t you start with that?” Excitement builds in me at the thought of new possibilities.
“Harold discovered the bullets worked one day in the labs. Two mixed Creations are being held prisoner in the underground lab. The mixed Creations called the Vojin for the scientists. The Vojin came, and Harold was the first to pull out his gun, packed with the special bullets, and shot both of them. Instantly. It was like he had planned the entire thing
out. No one was expecting it. Once they solidified, he pulled his goggles from his face and shot them each twice in the chest.” Luke imitates Harold shooting with his arm out and trigger finger pulling back an invisible trigger. “They didn’t turn into goo. Their bodies’ color faded out, and they dropped to the floor. They turned a dark gray as we witnessed the life literally drain from their bodies. It was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.”
I bounce on my toes, hands clasped in front of my chest. “Did they bleed?”
“Yes.” He smiles. “They leaked that colorful dust stuff, like smoke. The dust they leak after their bodies die still stays active. The scientist took samples.”
“Wow.”
“Okay. So what do you think?” He looks to me expectantly, already assuming I’m in.
I sit on his bed and lie back. “I think you’re onto something. I have an idea. When the others come back, we should find out the exact time they plan to attack. Doing so will give us an upper hand, and maybe we could go there before they plan to come here. We’ll shoot up the joint with our massive guns and explosives, taking down everything and anyone we see. And just before their reinforcements come, we’ll jet.”
He lies next to me. “Good idea. Because if they come here, it’s all over for us, humans and Creations.”
“I don’t know. They’ll still come here, especially after we attack. They’ll just think about it first. They’ll start thinking their implants have changed sides, and they are really relying on the implants to hold up their side of the bargain.” I sit up. “If they have confirmed an attack, why do you think the Trade hasn’t stepped in? When Trade member Grandin visited, he said they were researching them. Not trying to find a way to stop them.”
“Good question.”
“They seem to be more interested in finding out the implants.”
Luke shrugs. “The heat wave is over. I want to hit the course in the morning. They put the bridges in today, the ones that Seits was telling us about, so a group of us will check them out tomorrow afternoon.”
I stand. “I’ll run with you in the morning. I’m going.”
The Separation Trilogy Box Set: Books 1 -3 Page 45
